On Photographing Moments

Jacques-Henri Lartigue, in his writings of Mon Livre de Photographie, said it best when it comes to capturing that beautiful fleeting moment that is so unforgiven when missed, and so cherished when captured:

When he takes on a canvas, a painter is at his leisure to ‘compose’ his image, choose his landscape or dispose of objects and arrange the setting as he so pleases. The photographer, on the other hand, has to leap at what chance offers him; he has to intercept the rare opportunity, run to the best position, choose the best angle…if he has time. Because the golden rule is ‘do quickly’. And so, framing, composition, focus…no time to ask yourself too many questions. All you can do is turn to your personal intuition and to the vivacity of your reflexes!

A bride celebrating with her maid of honor a few minutes before heading to the wedding ceremony.

Wedding photography, in its essence, is more of a dance than an art. An improvised choreography between light, shadow, emotion, motion, and the human element. I call this a moment. It’s a marathon of a visual jazz performance. The visual frequency, if there is such a thing, that the photographer has to be tuned in, in order to perceive and anticipate the moment, must not be used just by the eyes, but by the ears, the nostrils, the heart and the gut. Tune your entire body and mind to be astute to the moments, and you’ll capture the richest of them.

The bride and groom exiting the venue with a gesture of victory as their wedding day concludes.

In doing this, the camera now becomes an extension of yourself. What you can’t capture with your hands, you can capture with the camera. A moment is an abstract thing. You can’t touch it. You can’t smell it. You can feel it though. But more importantly, you can capture it forever within a photograph. And why is this important? It might not be important to you, but it is to someone. Besides death, another component in life that we cannot escape is time. Time waits for no one. It comes and goes. Much like a butterfly. Your camera is that net that captures time. And in that time, if you look closely into it, you will find a moment. A tender moment of a mother nursing her child. A beautiful moment of a father giving her daughter to her groom. She’ll have a new man in her life, but she’ll always be daddy’s girl. The photograph of that specific moment is what anchors one’s life to their identity. “I am who I am, and I won’t forget that.”

A moment. A slice of time in one’s life that forever reminds them of who they are or who they were.

The groom's grandmother sharing her deepest affection for her grandson who got married that day.

My name is Brian Di Croce and I’m a wedding photographer based in Montreal, Canada. I’m also the founder of Momentura Studio, a modern wedding photography boutique specialized in documenting weddings worldwide. Through this medium, I’ll share with you my thoughts, my ideas, my tips on everything related to wedding photography and the wedding industry in general.